| Summary: | 碩士 === 國防醫學院 === 公共衛生學系 === 82 ===
The health hazards of cigarette smoking is documented by many studies. Unfortunely, the worldwide consumption of cigarettes was increasing year by year. There were many studies to elicit health hazards of enclosedspace workers and usually cigarette smoke was considered as a confounder in those studies. This study intends to measure the exposure level of environmental tobacco smoke, and the health effects among workers working in two enclosed spaces of southern Taiwan.
Totally, there were 134 employees from two enclosed spaces completed the measurement of blood carboxyhemoglobin (COHb), 62 completed the measurement of serum cotinine, 106 completed the pulmonary function mesurement, and 82 completed the survey of symptom qnestionaire.
The results of environmental monitoring showed that the level of carbon monoxide was negatively correlated with the other hazardous gases or organic compounds. The CO level decreased when the ventilation system was put on, however it was increased after the ventilation was put off. Excluding the impact of CO generated from diesel engine incompleted combustion, cigarette smoke was considered to be the main source of carbonmonoxide in the enclosed spaces.
The results of biological monitoring showed that blood COHb and serum cotinine were different between the two enclosed spaces and different between the smoking status. The mean COHb level in Unit B was higher than in Unit A before entering the working environment. However COHb level in Unit A was hgher than in Unit B after 3 days in the enclosed space. The mean cotinine level in Unit B was higher than in Unit Ain both before and after working in the enclosed space. The main influence factors of blood COHb level were the ventilation frequencies, duration of ventilation, and crowded level. Both blood COHb and serum cotinine levels were showed a positive does-response relationship with quantity of cigarette smoking.
The results of pulmonary function showed that FVC and FEV1.0 weredeclined after working in the enclosed space is comparison with tested before working, because the workers in the Unit A were more often exposed to environmental hazardous substances than in Unit B The pulmonary function in Unit A workers were lower than in Unit B workers. The baseline pulmonary function in smoking workers was lower than in nonsmokers. However the degree of decreasing in pulmonary function in nonsmokers were more than smokers after working in the enclosed space,
The prevalence of systematic symptoms was higher in Unit Bthan in Unit A.However, incidences of eye and nose irritation, central nervous system (CNS) symptoms, skin, and respiratory tractsymptoms in Unit A were higher than in Unit B after working in the enclosed space.
These results suggested that improvement of the ventilation system in order to reduce the concentration of CO and suspended particles is required for an enclosed environment. Selection of nonsmoking workers is primary prevention of environmental tobacco smoke in the enclosed space.
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